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A VISION OF LIFE AND DEATH.
'She said, she warm'd a student's heart,
But heart and brow 'gan fade:
Alas, alas! those Delphic trees
Do cast an upas shade!
'She said, she lighted happy hearths,
Whose mirth was all forgot:
She said, she tunëd marriage bells,
Which rang when love was not.
'She said, her name was Life; and then
Out laugh'd and wept aloud,—
What time the other being strange
Lifted the veiling shroud.
'Yea! lifted she the veiling shroud,
And breathed the icy breath;
Whereat, with inward shuddering,
I knew her name was Death.
